Last day, rather early start, wandered into Mazarine Coffee for breakfast around 8AM:

I had found this place just by searching Google for coffee near me at the beginning of this trip, and I had wanted to go since the very first day, but circumstances brought me to Starbucks for efficiency’s sake. Eggs were done perfectly, just cooked, so softly poached with a light layer of sprouts and cracked pepper on top for flavours. I would come back in a heartbeat. Coffee was strong too. I think my barista was in training – the latte art got mushed up a bit. Not sure if that affected the flavour…

After breakfast, I had originally planned to finish watching Harry Potter, which was showing on the television, but after careful consideration and D’s reminder, I booked it to the airport to see if I could get on an earlier flight. Weather was being unpredictable in Vancouver…

Ended up spending about $150USD to switch my seat. There was even enough time to go to the Duty Free to pick up a bottle of Johnny Walker, a box of See’s candy, and this Laneige BB Cushion that has been out of stock EVERYWHERE for the past half year. I am just glad it’s back in my life. Still can’t find it on the Sephora website for Canada.

Laneige medium shade, and Nespresso as I get ready today.

I’m glad I cut my day short in SF because I made it back safe and sound, no delays. Whether it’s business or personal, it is sometimes for the best to just cut your losses, take what you have gained, and make the most of the situation. How do you determine at that you’ve given it your best? At what point do you walk away from the deal or the relationship?

Busy days and tough decisions ahead.

Here are the links to all the days from this trip:
Day 1
Day 2.. and sort of 3
Day 4 - Part 1
Day 4 - Part 2
Day 5 

Woke up late to this view at the JW Marriott, 11th floor, room 1111:

So, instead of walking over to the Viator tour office where I was supposed to pick up my vouchers, I took a cab… Felt like such a waste of money, but made it on time for the ferry to Alcatraz:

It was interesting how we could just casually stroll along the same paths that serial killers, kidnappers, psychopaths, etc. had taken just a few decades ago. The self guided audio tour was interesting and told stories of escapades. I would come back at night to experience the full spookiness of it, although there were no ghost stories.

Had an early lunch at the Fog Harbour, where we had also gone last year for one of the dinners pre-show. I remembered they had really good clam chowder, which I had a craving for after the cold damp ferry ride.

Deeeeelicious. So creamy.

Wanted something boozy to warm me up more. This was something with rum.

And the grand finale, crab roll! It was a bit cold, to be honest, and I didn't quite like the clamminess.

Got a ride to Muir Woods from the tour office again, as part of the tour package:

Mysterious… The “hike” was a 30 to 45 minute walk around a very well groomed dirt/wood path, with huge puddles from the recent rain in the area. Tour guide was pretty cool, he dropped us off at our hotels after and told us stories about his family.
I’m not sure if I would do this tour on my own again. It cost $150USD, and I only did the Alcatraz and Muir woods portion, completely skipping the Dungeon and the complimentary wine tour. It was exhausting to rush around like that, and my legs were shot from all the walking in the past 2 days. Even thinking about it now is making me feel sore.

Trekked across SFO to Twin Peaks! Originally wanted to visit the Sutro Nature Reserve, but it didn’t look like it would be as rewarding as climbing to the top of a hill to see the whole city from above. The clouds cleared up at the top, where I felt like I would literally be blown away if I didn’t try to make myself heavier.

Came back down to the Castro, hungry and ready to chow down on whatever food I could find. It was already past 2PM by the time the food arrived, and it took me a lot of willpower to hold back, and take this picture first:

This was one of the lunch special sets at Thai House, including red curry with chicken, and a shrimp spring roll thingy, which was awesomely crispy. The soup on the bottom right was sorta too salty though. Overall, pretty good food, nice place for a quiet late lunch. I’d want to try out the other restaurants to see what else the Castro district could offer though, so I wouldn’t come back again any time soon.

Then, I walked all the way back to the hotel, drank wine, and watched movies Netflix. Being alone is definitely an art.

Back to present times… Feeling physically bad because it’s been a while since I’ve had time to exercise. Heart’s been racing these days… Not in the I’m happy to see you way either.

Another day went by at the Moscone center, with more handshaking and smiling. As our reward:

Tadich Grill. I found it on Zagat actually, as P sounded like he really wanted seafood and I love shrimp. This place has been around for over 168 years, according to their menu, and their servers look like they’ve been around for at least three quarters of that time:

Our server was great fun, so full of personality, probably hidden in his hair. He gave off that feeling of being somebody’s feisty uncle. It probably helped that the food was delicious (or the other way around – maybe the awesome service sparked something in our brains that made the food taste better). I had the seafood cioppino that was on special (see photo above). Some places just inspire good conversation, no matter who you’re with.

Not saying that the people I was with weren’t cool, sales people are generally fun to be around.

I don’t know if anybody is really made for this type of lifestyle of standing 8 hours a day, going for huge meals with optional side of alcohol, then going back “home” to your hotel. It did help me appreciate having a regular office job a bit, but now that I’m back in the office for the 2nd day already, I’m getting a bit frustrated again. The snow really isn’t helping much either right now and the long commute is a pain, especially with angry drivers all over the road.

Start rant.

Today, a well put together Caucasian male with white hair driving a red Audi sedan, possibly a coupe, rolled down his window to yell at me, as I tried to get into the southbound lanes first and then try to quickly change into the other lane that would take me to the north bound lane. He angrily requested that I stay in the “real” merge lane, instead of making my own. Frankly, I “made my own lane” to clear up space for him to get back to his big house in the south sooner, because I was trying to head north, and if he didn’t keep his head stuck in his self entitlement, he would have seen that. I rolled my window down to reply him that I was trying to get into the far lane, and I could hear him crawling back into that hole… Those who rage first are rarely in the right. Stop embarrassing yourself. I’m sure there are moments when I’ve honked for no reason, or when I’ve been honked at for good reason. However, there’s no reason to get out of your car or roll down your window to shout.

End rant. TLDR: rich man road raged at me because his time is precious.

I haven’t been home since last Monday morning of January. Feels so relaxing to come back to home base, it feels like I can breathe again. Last week, I was in San Francisco for a tradeshow with work, talking about our new products, meeting new people, learning and connecting… People always look so surprised when I reach out for that first hand shake. Apparently, I look extremely young still, but I didn’t get carded at one of the restaurants…

Team building at Puccini and Pinetti:

Conveniently at the bottom of the hotel, we came here for a quick bite after day 1. Deliciously fluffy and chewy pizza, with melt off the crust toppings. The cheeeeeeese… I also tried my first gluten free beer, and was not too impressed. I'd go back if somebody paid for me, but not really a first choice. The Yelp and Tripadvisor and Zomato reviews are pretty accurate for this place - average.

This first day was so busy, I went back to the hotel and just crashed into bed. Just like tonight.

Picked up this awesome set during my trip to San Francisco with my points. The merch in the USA seems better than the Canadian selection.


100% Pure Argan Oil – Use this every morning

Pure Argan Milk Treatment (love this) – Also use every morning

Argan Infinity Lip and Cheek Creamy Oil in Everlasting Honey – Smooth and moisturizing, but my lips still flake so not moisturizing enough

Argan Enlightenment Illuminizing Veil – I don’t like shine and this glows like the sun

The Milk is really thick and gloopy, so it’s hard to pick up from the dropper. Love the way it feels though, definitely the most moisturizing thing I’ve put on my face in my entire life (combined with the 100% Pure Argan Oil). Maybe buy it again when it’s not $70 for a full size bottle of 30ml!!!

This has been one of the main things on my mind lately. Work has been pretty chill, lots of people that I don’t really agree with, but tis the life of corporations. Another person has resigned, another long time employee who seemed pretty happy. Was he? Am I? How should we proceed?

Why do things always have to change...

While I was in San Francisco, G also took me to the Latin America Club, where we caught up on life and I learned about the cost of living in San Francisco (over $2000 to live in a studio?!). They got some STRONG margaritas. I’m talking over 9000 strong. Stronger than the Hulk. Maybe as strong as the black coffee I have every morning. We couldn’t finish them, my fingers were tingling.

Before / After

 


Visited the Sephora in downtown San Francisco, hoping to find the belif eye cream, but it cost too much for my budget ($48USD to CAD is $68!!!), so I just asked for a sample. I tried it this morning, and it feels good so I might go back for more, but I did pick this up instead (among other things):

Egg Mousse Pack by Too Cool for School:

My skin’s not feeling so great, but this brightened and smoothed it out a bit. Felt very soothing, and only requires 5 minutes. I won’t bother taking a before and after, because my camera quality isn’t great and you won’t see any difference anyways. Boo. It’s pretty good for $20USD, so I’d probably get this again.

Today was a good day, despite some tremendous changes at work. Please try not to worry…

This was my first time traveling (half) alone. Half because I hung out with G a lot on the last day, and my coworkers were all there the rest of the week. I don’t know if I learned much more about myself than I already knew, I hang out alone quite a lot and I’m comfortable wandering the streets on my own. I certainly tried a lot of new things.

I lugged my personal travel mug all the way from Vancouver to San Francisco to prevent using disposable cups, and it worked pretty well. I saved 6 cups, and only used the ONE disposable cup for coffee at Ritual and ONE plastic cup for coffee at a place on Haightes Street on the last day of the trip.

I got tired of Starbucks for coffee pretty early on in the trip (after 1 day), so I looked up a few places, talked to a few people… Ended up at Blue Bottle Coffee:





All I ordered was the Americano, so it wasn’t really worth any photos. D got the breakfast sandwich, which was made with the BEST BACON EVER. I gotta say, San Francisco has proven to be very good with their meats (prime rib, for example). I had the Hot Oatmeal, which was made with steel cut oats and fruit jam on Day 1…


…and the chia seed pudding on Day 2 (made with shredded coconut, orange zest, nuts, and lots of other seeds):

Today, I had dinner with H and his family/friends, and instead of using plates like normal people for cake, they decide to wrap it with saran wrap to avoid having to wash the extra set of plates for 14 people. Highly upsetting behavior… I can see how they would think it actually saves time/resources because of the water and soap used, but saran wrap is a plastic that can only be thrown away in the garbage can and sent to the garbage dump/incinerator. I hope H understands why I was so upset. That amount of saran wrap was the equivalent of the 6 disposable cups that I didn’t use this whole week. Getting closer to Zero Waste is not going to be easy, and I can see a lot of tears ahead.

It was a busy week and I could not blog everyday, but H has requested I do a post so here it is.

On Wednesday, I went out with the coworkers to House of Prime Rib where the prime rib just melts on your tongue and it's so flavourful but not too salty. (The alcohol probably made it taste better too.) $43 USD gets you 6 ounces of this magical melting beef, corn bread, a salad (the serving of the salad was like a show where the server spins the huge salad bowl and pours on the sauce from a meter above it), mashed or baked potato (I had mashed), and creamed spinach.

I would come back, and make sure to get a reservation 2 or 3 months in advance.

So good. The perfect way to end a whole day spent on your feet, talking to people who use too many 4 syllable scientific words ("I would like to use this camera to build my hyperspectrometer and maybe record the photons splitting in my laser lab",  for example).

The next night was the last night of the show and we went for a drive around the city. Ended up getting a great view of the Golden Gate bridge and surrounding San Francisco / Bay area.

Staying with G tonight to save 300$ on hotel fees! Excited for tomorrow, I am.

I am at SFO!

My room at Hotel Nikko.

This will be a quick post, because I'm doing it on my phone, and I should probably sleep now so that I'll wake up on time tomorrow. The laptop lags like crrrrazy.

Used the Sephora 2016 birthday gift, which was a Fresh Soy face cleanser and the Rose Face Mask. The cleanser actually removes all the eye makeup too. The mask has pieces of rose in it, and smells pretty.

I like it, but I haven't decided whether I'd use it again. I'll keep using it for the rest of the time that I'm here.

Again, I'm glad the Internet exists and that it's easy to call through wifi.